2 Corinthians 2:15 says we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
I am intrigued by Paul’s use of the poetic, that we induce a response as a reflection of Christ to those who know Christ is cool and expected but then to be a reflection and that reflection be death to death meaning the unbeliever is not drawn but offended. What aroma do you see for your life to God. Now there are some of you reading this thinking “My sin is so great that I am sure it is a stink to God” but you have to put this into perspective to the sacrifice that is “Christ”. That Christ saves and has already paid for all that sin means that we are now and forever, guiltless. We, even in the midst our sin, are perfect in God’s sight. His banner over me is love.(Song of Solomon 2:4) Now on to this death to death part of the passage. I am not sure how to process this exactly but I think it is a reflection of God’s justice and love through its polarization of the negative to the positive. That is to say that if I, one who is saved, was saved from something lame or nothing at all then the value of being save is lessened or voided all together. God’s justice must be satisfied and that aroma is not so sweet even to those of us who are saved. I talk to people who hold to the fairness of God without recognizing that fair is worse than what they think. If God was fair, none of us would be saved. We all deserve(read that fair) to go to hell. The horror of the justice that must be paid makes the Grace, the deliverance from that justice, a sweet, sweet aroma indeed.
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